8 Huge Things We're Going to Build in 2018

Bigger, faster, taller and more expensive, all play prominently when looking over some of the most intriguing construction projects ongoing in the U.S. in 2018. While some projects may just kick off in 2018 and others see the light at the end of the literal tunnel, the New Year brings with it more than a few large projects worth watching in 2018.

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Salesforce Tower, San Francisco

Getty ImagesTayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency

Immediately upon opening in early 2018, the 61-story Salesforce Tower in downtown San Francisco’s Financial District will slide in as one of the top-10 tallest buildings in the U.S. and one of the tallest outside New York or Chicago. At 1,070 feet tall, tenants will start moving into portions of the curved skyscraper even as crews put the finishing touches on the $1.1 billion project.

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​Hudson Yards, Manhattan

Getty ImagesDon Emmert/AFP

The first major 895-foot-tall office tower opened in 2016, a key piece in the ever-growing Hudson Yards development in Manhattan expected to turn 28 acres into a mixed-use development—complete with 16 skyscrapers. The largest private real estate development in the history of the country will include more than 18 million square feet of commercial and residential space, more than 100 shops, 14 acres of pubic open space and even a public school. Final build-out is scheduled for 2024.

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California High Speed Rail, Southern California

California High-Speed Rail

No project in the country comes with a higher price tag than the reported $64 billion California High Speed Rail designed to scoot passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in a swift two hours and 40 minutes. Construction kicked off in 2015 and the finish of the first phase should have passengers moving in 2025, with subsequent portions opening in 2029. Once all that wraps up, expect Sacramento and San Diego to get in on the need for speed.

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Central Subway, San Francisco

SFMTA

A new 1.7-mile portion of mass transit in San Francisco comes mostly underground. The $1.58 billion Central Subway project will extend the Muni Metro T Third Line through SoMa, Union Square, and Chintatown by traveling underground and bypassing heavy traffic on surface streets. Four new stations come with the fresh rail, currently in the heart of construction and scheduled for service starting in 2019.

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Los Angeles Stadium and Entertainment District, Inglewood, California

HKS

More than a $1-billion+ 70,000-seat football stadium for two NFL teams—both the L.A. Rams and Chargers—the ongoing work at the Los Angeles Stadium and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park turns the former racetrack into an entertainment destination located four miles from LAX. The stadium, expandable to 100,000 seats, will open in 2020 and host the 2028 Olympics, but will enjoy the support of a 6,000-seat performing arts venue, office and retail space, a hotel, residences, and 25 acres of public parks, open space, and walkways.

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Two Detroit-Ontario bridges, Detroit

Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority

Admittedly, the bulk of the work is getting done right now in Ontario, Canada, but once Detroit gets going on its end with more fervor, expect more intense construction action across the Detroit River as two separate international bridges move toward construction. Creating a new international crossing alignment, the Gordie Howe Bridge should start construction in the second half of 2018. Plans have ebbed and flowed for the replacement of the Ambassador bridge, owned by the Morouns family’s Canadian Transit Company, but recent agreements offer the potential that the replacement of the river’s current crossing could run on a concurrent timeframe as its soon-to-be bridge rival.

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Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement, Seattle

WSDOT

A 1.7-mile-long bored tunnel under downtown Seattle finally wrapped up mining in 2017 and now crews work toward building a double-deck roadway in 2018 to replace the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct, scheduled for demolition. Using, at the time, the world’s largest tunnel-boring machine at 57.5-feet in diameter to dig the tunnel, traffic on the $3.1 billion project now has an early 2019 opening date—a few years behind schedule—that looks promising.

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Hudson’s Development, Detroit

Bedrock

Just as the Little Caesar’s Arena and subsequent neighborhood wrapped up in 2017, work should get going on the Dan Gilbert-owned project to spend about $1 billion on a complete redevelopment of the J.L. Hudson site in downtown Detroit. The gem of the project includes an 800-foot-tall tower with an observation deck, giving what will become the city’s tallest building a view to the city.

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